google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, June 5, 2020, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Jun 5, 2020

Friday, June 5, 2020, Jeffrey Wechsler



Title: No more Montreal Canadians hockey club! No


Okay, That might be a stretch and not that helpful but my other choices were: ISO country code for Switzerland; Continuum hypothesis, in set theory; Cholesterol and so on. I could have just removed the first two letters of my last name, but not everyone knows my secret identity. Hi, like our first Friday in June, we begin this month with a puzzle from Jeffrey Wechsler. As always in addition to a theme with wit, there are some nice fill like, BECLOUD, BERATED (interesting how the "BE" beginning works so differently), GLUTTON, HIGH ART (JW's career as a curator)  IN A MEMO, LATE PASS, MADE A BID, OVERRIPE and PET HORSE.

18A. Result of severe yoga class over-registration?: THREE ON A MATCH (11). The mental picture of three enthusiasts sharing a single mat opens the mind to many possibilities.

30A. Jeweler's assurance about mounting one flashy gem?: IT'LL DO IN A PINCH (12). Pins and brooches just are not as popular now.

36A. Show whose wit is quicker?: BEAT TO THE PUNCH (12). This reminds me of shows like above.

52A. Dander-sensitive visitor's query at the doorway?: IS THERE A CATCH? (11). For HG, and all of the non-allergic cat owners.
And the rare Friday reveal.

45D. V-shaped cut ... or, in two parts, a hint to four long puzzle answers: NOTCH (5). Parsed as Not CH. I did not need it, and I wonder if this was JW or Rich's suggestion?

Across:

1. Italian sausage choice: MILD. These days everything in my home is a choice of spicy or Thai spicy.

5. Small amounts: BITS. I have to eat most meals in...

9. Texter's "Holy moly!": OMGOMG(od) (oodness)!

12. As of today: TO NOW. I think "Up to now" but what do I know.

13. Code type: PENAL. Sounds obscene.

14. Batman after Michael: VAL. KEATON - KILMER. I never noticed the K symmetry.

15. Liszt creation: ETUDE. He wrote MANY.


16. Sister of Thalia: ERATO. Nine Muses. Muses. Calliope · Clio · Euterpe; Erato; Melpomene · Polyhymnia · Terpsichore · Thalia · Urania.

17. Brown URL suffix: EDU. The Ivy League school in Rhode Island.

20. Like many SSA payment recipients: RETired. Not mandatory, but you will be taxed if you make too much money.

21. Natural resource: ORE. Nice, simple fill. Paired with

22. Zion National Park sight: BUTTE. There are many to climb. Here is ONE.

23. Thin man of rhyme: SPRAT. Jack could eat no fat.

25. Automaker whose Rambler sales were likely aided by the 1958 hit "Beep Beep": NASH.


27. Swarms (with): TEEMS.

29. Part of RNA: RIBO. Ribonucleic acid (RNA), a nucleic acid present in all living cells. Its principal role is to act as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA. Dictionary.

33. Dallas suburb: PLANO. CSO to our Texans.

35. Asked for milk, maybe: MEWED. Kitty cat.

40. Words from Caesar: ET TU. Brutus!

41. Whale's mouthful: KRILL. Krill are small crustaceans of the order Euphausiacea, and are found in all the world's oceans. The name "krill" comes from the Norwegian word krill, meaning "small fry of fish."

42. Gemini, e.g.: SIGN.

46. Musical with the song "Endgame": CHESS. This is way out of my musical knowledge and league.


48. Obvious flirt: OGLER. Ogling is not flirting; it is aggressive and invasive.

50. God in the Vatican: DIO. Italian word.

51. Slice (off): LOP.

55. U.K. singer Rita: ORA.


56. Volga-Ural ethnic group member: TATAR.

57. Alpine mont: BLANC.

58. Enterprise letters: USS.

59. Word before now and then: EVERY.

60. Heaven partner: EARTH. They are going dancing this Saturday.

61. __ Moines: DES.

62. Rockefeller Center muralist: SERT.


63. Tupperware parts: LIDS. Why don't they ever match?


Down:

1. Flying foe of Godzilla: MOTHRA. I watched this MOVIE alone in the basement of my Uncle's house when I was little.


2. Accustoms (to): INURES. This word is often seen in legal double talk.

4. Socially inept sort: DWEEB. First used in 1964. Why?

5. Dressed down: BERATED. There are 79 such "BE" words. 36D. Muddle, as one's judgment: BECLOUD.

6. How office directives may be relayed: IN A MEMO. Too often.

7. Leaving word: TA-TA. This is of British origin. The OED defines it as "nursery expression for 'Good-bye'".

8. Vegas array: SLOTS. Do your casinos still allow indoor smoking?

9. Like bananas used for bread, often: OVERRIPE. Yum.

10. Raised one's auction paddle, say: MADE A BID. Or played bridge or so many other choices.

11. Insatiable sort: GLUTTON. Even for punishment.

12. Wyoming's __ Range: TETON. The Teton Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. It extends for approximately 40 miles in a north-south direction through the U.S. state of Wyoming, east of the Idaho state line.

13. Felt-tip marker pioneer: PENTEL.

19. Microsoft Office component: OUTLOOK. We use that for the office.

24. Shellfish entrée: PRAWNS. Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs, some of which can be eaten.

26. Break: HIATUS. Spring hiatus does not seem as exciting.

28. Requiring less effort: SIMPLER.

31. Boomer?: TNT. Our Boomer - Tried 'N True.

32. Fresh, to a Fräulein: NEU. New. Nu?

33. Lucy, a Clydesdale, in the comic "Non Sequitur," for one: PET HORSE.  The horse is riding the Moose.Non Sequitur Comic Strip for December 15, 2003

34. Tardy student's admission slip: LATE PASS. They bring the parent's note to the office and they are issued a 'late pass.'

37. Harness racer: TROTTER. Breeds that are used for flat racing include the Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse, Arabian, Paint, and Appaloosa

38. Sophisticated paintings, say: HIGH ART. Do you see it?


39. Logical Queen: ELLERY. We are approaching the 100th anniversary of the creation of this character. Ellery Queen was created in 1928 when cousins Dannay and Lee entered a writing contest sponsored by McClure's magazine for the best first mystery novel.

43. Security desk request: ID CARD.

44. NFL team that doesn't play home games in the state it's named for: GIANTS. New Jersey - New York... meh. JW lives in New Jersey.

47. Locations: SITES.

49. Rise up: REBEL.

53. Store for future use: SAVE.

54. Court game word: ALAI. Jai will now leave on this note and hope you enjoyed the ride. I do not alai to you. Thank you, Jeffrey, and all who read and write. Lemonade out.






50 comments:

  1. Carol and I FIR in 39:31 min.
      
    Good morning Cornerites.

    Thank you Jeffrey Wechsler for your enjoyable Friday CW. 

    Thank you Lemonade for your excellent review.

    Ðave

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tupperware usually does not use the word, “lids,” to describe their tops. They are known as seals, to indicate their ability to form a seal that won’t leak.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good morning!

    Got the theme at THREE ON A MAT. Good thing, because I blew past the reveal. Again. Went awry with BY EMAIL for IN A MEMO and SAINTS for GIANTS. Wite-Out can work wonders. Thanx, JW and Lemonade.

    RET -- Many seniors don't understand why they have to pay taxes on their SS payments. It dates back to the '80s when the law was changed so that "rich" people would pay the additional tax. It wasn't indexed for inflation, so now the average mom and pop get that same privilege. At most, 85% of the SS payment will be taxable.

    DWEEB -- Why was it first used in 1964? Probably because that year d-o was a frosh.

    MOTHRA -- RODAN was too short. Our movie theater had closed years earlier, but I remember my dad hauling me and a carload of friends to the next town to view this must-see epic.

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  4. Good morning, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

    Well, once again I could not sleep last night, so I downloaded the puzzle via cruciverb. That was about 1:30. Worked it for about an hour and then I became sleepy. Now I know the secret of how to fix insomnia. Got about 3/4 of the puzzle. Got up this morning about 6:00, opened the puzzle, and finished it in 15 minutes. I saw things I could not see last night.

    Caught the theme with THREE ON A MATch. Then the others came easily. That explained 45D NOTCH. Got all this in the morning.

    Tried MORSE at 13A before PENAL worked much better.

    Did not know MOTHRA but I had the perps.

    Tried CRILL with a C. Founfd out the K worked a lot better.

    LATE PASS was a wag. Worked.

    PET HORSE was also a wag.

    DES for Moines. Yesterday we had DES for Plaines.

    Remember ELLERY QUEEN.

    Got GIANTS after I ran through all the NFL teams I could think of.

    OVER RIPE reminds me of the banana bread my wife made this past week. I like banana bread, just not plain bananas. I do not eat them at all.

    ERATO. Thanks for the list of all the muses, Lemonade. I learned something today.

    I am going out to the garden now. It is still cool. Have to get my plants in the ground. See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

    ( )

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  5. Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. I had a bit of rouble getting a foothold in today’s puzzle until I got the New England corner. My first theme answer was IS THERE A CAT, but I needed the NOT CH to help with the other theme answers.

    Chess is a Tim Rice musical, who usually collaborates with Andrew Lloyd Webber. With Chess, however, he collaborated with ABBA musicians Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.

    I learned that Oil is not a natural resource, but ORE and its LODE is.

    I wanted Hell to be Heaven’s partner.

    I liked seeing HIGH ART crossing with SERT, especially since Lemonade made it a visual pun with the Sert example.

    I had some almost OVER RIPE banana, so made some Banana bread earlier this week. I found a new recipe that has a lot of cinnamon in it. It is so delicious and will be my new (NEU) go-to recipe when I have some bananas that are past their prime.

    I loved seeing HIATUS as a Break. Our current Hiatus is way too long, but I am fortunate that I can stay put. My summer travel plans, however, have been cancelled and I am not keen on hopping on a plane to visit family.

    We are keeping an eye on the storm activity in the Gulf. Cristobal seems to be headed our way. This is the first time ever since the naming of Hurricanes that there have been 3 names storms this early in the Hurricane season, which began just 9 days ago. At the very least, we will be getting a lot of rain.

    QOD: We have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy. ~ John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes (June 5, 1883 ~ Apr. 21, 1946), British economist

    ReplyDelete
  6. Faster than yesterday's puzzle, about Wed, level. Seeing the missing CH right off sped the solve along. Fun puzzle, fun blog.
    Inure or enure? There is no MELD sausage so INURE.
    Nash Rambler song brings back memories.
    I loved our tour of western national parks. My favorite was Bryce Canyon in Utah. Awesome hoodoos.
    The Tupperware catalog uses the term covers. Amazon has Tupperware lids, covers and seals on the same page. No difference. A rep got me a free replacement lid for a five year old pitcher, but it is white instead of yellow like the old one.

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  7. Good morning everyone.

    FLN - Thanks -T for augmenting my feeble explanation of how an optical mouse works. One can never know too much about one's mouse.

    What a nice surprise to wake up and BE offered a Wechsler puzzle. He did not disappoint. Filled in the NE and drifted to the bottom. Entered IS THERE A CAT(CH), and the theme fill became much easier. The rest of the solve caught fire and was quickly finished.
    Liked the ……CAT / NOTCH crossing. NEU came easily.
    Boomer : TNT - - CSO to our Monday Sherpa. We used to refer to sailors on ballistic submarines as Boomers. They were easily recognized by the (vertical) rocket device worn on their uniform's left breast.
    SPRAT - I had a colleague, Jack SPRAT who worked at Ontario-Hydro in Toronto. He was a rabid Blue Jays fan.

    Tschüß. (TATA in puzzledom)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hola!

    My OUTLOOK on this puzzle is that it solved too quickly. I wanted to slowly savor JW's wit. I caught the missing -CH, too.

    ETUDE, ERATO and EDU all in a row evoked a smile. A Lid is a Lid is a Lid even if it's a seal.

    Today I learned that PENTEL pioneered the felt tip marker and Nash produced the Rambler. I thought Nash perished long before 1958. My dad had one in the 1930s.

    BECLOUD? Is that what it's called? In my case I'll say befuddled. And I assume that everyone here now knows what TETON means in Spanish. Besides Wyoming, women also have two.

    Since I'm not too familiar with Texas, PLANO was a pure guess when P____O loomed.

    Though I've never seen a Godzilla movie, I have heard of MOTHRA.

    TATAR recalls the Mongol discussion from Sunday.

    Thank you, Lemonade; you decode Jeffrey's grid very understandably.

    Have a fabulous day, everyone! TA-TA!

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  9. Fast for a Friday but very fun puzzle and write up. Even though I've seen the murals, Sert was all perps.

    Be safe everyone.

    JB2

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good Morning:

    Just what I needed - a fun and playful puzzle from the Wizard of Wordplay, Mr. Wechsler himself! The theme was obvious from the get-go but the reveal, necessary or not, was a hoot. My favorite theme answer was “Is there a cat.” That made my silly error seem even more silly: for Asked for milk, I entered Mooed before Mewed. Mothra and Pet horse needed perps, but Giants was a gimme. I thought the solve was easy for a Friday. CSO to the Texans at Plano and to our own noise maker, Boomer at TNT!

    Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a pleasant diversion and thanks, Lemony, for being Jeffrey’s expert analyzer and explainer.

    Stay safe, all.

    ReplyDelete




  11. Good morning. Thank you, Jeffrey and Lemonade.

    Yup, for me too, a super fast and unusually easy puzzle for a Friday. Two seconds under 16 minutes for me. Maybe I should wait until I'm fully awake before solving a puzzle ?

    When I got to the Dallas suburb, 5 letters, I was pretty confident it would be PLANO. But in checking the perps, I quickly entered toyHORSE and hallPASS. Those were the only two corrections that needed to be made.

    Got NASH easily but not because of the clue. Never heard that novelty song before. Listened closely. Figured the NASH was keeping up because it was stuck to the Cadillac's bumper.

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  12. The Rambler actually passed the Cadillac.
    Last verse:
    Now we're doing a hundred and twenty, as fast as I could go.
    The Rambler pulled alongside of me as if I were going slow.
    The fellow rolled down his window and yelled for me to hear,
    Hey, buddy, how can I get this car out of second gear?

    It was a rout.

    ReplyDelete

  13. Yes, Yellowrocks, I heard that while listening closely. It was the unexpected surprise ending to the song.

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  14. As others before me stated, this was an enjoyable puzzle from JW. Lemon added to the enjoyment with his tour through the grid.

    I finished in better than usual Friday time (20 minutes) and had a few changes to make along the way. I had SST before TNT for the Boomer, I also had MOOED before MEWED and I had no clue who SERT was. Perps to the rescue.

    Having traveled through many of the Western National Parks, I wasn't sure what Zion view JW was looking for. I really enjoyed all of the tours, but I think Yellowstone was my favorite. Nature is so amazing.

    I jumped on the MILD Italian sausage immediately. I'm planning on making sausage and peppers in a tomato basil sauce today. Maybe over linguine. Some people eat to live, I live to eat.

    Have a great day everyone and please be safe.

    ReplyDelete
  15. My sister did well with her pace maker surgery this week. Her daughter and a sister are looking into 24/7 care with Medicaid. We are 99% sure she will not be able to live at home and we have to let her apartment go.

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  16. oc4beach, I was going to mention it, but since you usually do, I didn't. Today is National Doughnut Day according to something I heard on the TV earlier. A list in Wikipedia says it also National Moonshine Day. Now that would be some combo, but your sausage and peppers over linguine sounds better to me.

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  17. Musings
    -Clever theme, fill, misdirection and Lemon. Yes, was a reveal necessary?
    -Last Saturday, I posted a picture of a motel whose sign said, “It’s not a Hilton, but “IT WILL DO”
    -THERE IS A CAT. Allergic neighbors studiously avoid Lily when she walks up to them
    -Lily can MEW all she wants but everything I read says she should not have any milk
    -OMG, a GLUTTON? I played 18 in 97oF heat yesterday but had a great time. Lots of shade!
    -Batman always conjures up Adam West’s campy TV version to me
    -Our Menard’s Lumber has TEEMED with customers all through this quarantine
    -The prize in my principal’s pen collection was a Mount BLANC
    -Tupperware LIDS? Only my wife knows the CODE
    -They all MADE A BID to be the 2020 Democratic candidate
    -King Ludwig’s II’s famous Neuschwanstein literally means “NEW swan castle”

    ReplyDelete
  18. Easy Friday in part because the theme game became obvious early on. Some inkovers, but FIR: LATEnote/PASS. Crill/KRILL. Just knew Morse was too easy for a Friday. Perpwalked to PENAL.

    Held off on Latin DEO for Italian Dio. Actually the current Pope says DIOS

    TONOW should be upTONOW. The-never-uttered -by-Cæsar "ETTU" spoken once again.

    Doesn't Betsy go with Heaven? BECLOUD? c"mon! Thought it was Jack SPRATT who was a vegan

    Grear ELLERY clue. Somehow in the 🦹‍♂️Batman 🦹‍♀️hierarchy I remembered Kilmer after Keaton.

    (The TETONS are French TATAS)🤗🤭

    Definition of frustration... trying to find the one of a 1000 Tupperware lids that fit the container in my hand.

    Thought Vegas array would be buffets

    Also thought.....

    Eastern ethnic group young'uns.......TATAR TOTS 💂‍♂️💂‍♀️
    KRILL on steroids...PRAWNS
    What you do with your teeth in Hell.....NASH.
    Sistine Chapel ceiling.....HIGH ART

    On to Saturn's Day.

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  19. FIR and caught on to the theme right away. It was very helpful to know how each themer would end. Had acid before RIBO because I thought it was Monday. PDQ solve today.

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  20. Shouldn't National Doughnut Day fall under the sign of Taurus?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Got the theme early at the yoga clue, and fairly smooth sailing after that. Like Yellowrocks and others, it felt like a Wednesday level challenge which is surprising especially for Jeff on a Friday. DNK the musical Chess. DW's 80th BD celebration is finally over. Too much pizza, pasta, wine and cake. She's looking forward to the next 80.

    ReplyDelete


  22. FLN, I opined once that REX Morgan+Judge PARKER was the inspiration for Michael's moniker.

    LATE PASS: Why didn't I think of that. So much detention could have been saved. Heck, I could have written my own

    Like Abejo I awoke in the night and decided to knock off the xword. Seemed a little difficult even for a Friday. Then when I woke up at 8am I opened the J which I'd also done and didn't recognize OMK's "Spoon" .

    Alas, I had solved Saturday. I had just time to solve JeffWesch's difficult for a Friday. I did notice "no theme" earlier.

    Yes! The reveal was necessary and still took some grok'ing. Boy, I'm rowing upstream today. Granted Jeff gave plenty of perps.

    Also, FLN. Re. Critics. It's been said that "He was damned by faint praise." The reverse holds with Rex etal: "Praise by faint damnation"

    WC

    Ray-O, you're sizzling today

    ReplyDelete
  23. As often happens, I FIR with a little more suffering than most of you Cornerites. Reading NOTCH as NOT CH took a bit of time ... speaking of which, BITS and its perps were the toughest area for me. Very satisfying to solve! Thanks, Mr Wechsler, Lemonade, et alia.

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  24. Oooh, a Friday Jeffrey Wechsler toughie for me. I think one of the earliest puzzles I ever did online was one of Jeffrey's--how long ago would that have been? But they are always cool and fun, even when they're not always easy for me. So, thank you, Jeffrey. And thanks to you too, Lemonade--especially for giving us all those nine MUSES.

    Seems like SPRAT and ET TU have been turning up in puzzles a lot recently. Nice to get them so readily.

    But I had CRIED for that milk wailing because I thought of babies, not cats.
    And for the first time, my German failed me. I know who a Fraulein (can't do umlauts) is, but what's German for "fresh"? NEU? Well, I guess so, but not my favorite answer of the day.

    Didn't know you wrote poems, Yellowrocks! You should come and join the Jumble. And hope your sister has a good recovery.

    Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.


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  25. Another Friday, another JW gem.

    Went through this, but not without issues.

    Write-overs...BISON/BUTTE, STRAT/SPRAT, HALLPASS/LATEPASS, STAR/SIGN.

    We always had Italian sausage, but they were Sweet or Hot at the Italian meat shop.

    And on to Saturday. Stay Safe.

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  26. TTP: You're right, it is National Donut Day. Before the changes because of the pandemic, I would go to the local Giant supermarket and get a mix of donuts from their self service case. Now the only choice you have is the pre-mixed boxes of donuts that they put out. Also, they cut back on the variety of donuts they make each day. Bummer.

    This is onesite I use to see what each day is.

    My trick to making sausage and peppers is to fry about half a pound of bacon first and drain off most of the fat, then fry the sausage, then the peppers and onions. I chop up the bacon and then slice the sausages into medallions then put everything in a good Tomato/Basil sauce along with a can of chicken broth and let it simmer for for about 30 minutes. Makes a good meal.

    I don't have any donuts, but I do have cookies. Think I'll have a couple.

    Enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  27. This was an amusing JW as expected! I hesitated on MILD for Italian Sausage because I thought it would be some Italian type of sausage name - like we have Asiago for Italian bread or Edam for Dutch cheese. Otherwise worked my way through pretty smoothly.
    I had heard of CHESS but I have never seen it in a theater- even though I'm a big fan of musicals.

    Lemonade - I enjoyed the link to the NASH Rambler vs Cadillac race song - though I'd never heard of the song before. It reminded me of the movie I just watched "Ford vs Ferrari" this week with Matt Damon and Christian Bale - I would highly recommend it unless you really hate watching car racing. The characters of the Davids (car designer and racer)vs Goliath (big corporation) was a neat story line and hearkens back to Steve McQueen in the movie "Le Mans".

    My nephew is the manager of Pappadeaux's Seafood Kitchen in Plano - he used to be the assistant manager of the one in Ft. Worth - so now he has a long commute!

    Thanks Lemonade and Jeff!

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  28. Friday workout. Thanks for the fun, Jeffrey and Lemonade.
    My brain must be BECLOUDed, since I found this CW slow to fill. But it was worth the effort (unlike yesterday's IMHO).
    I had plenty of inkblots and needed a couple of Google helps.
    I got NOTCH early, but parsed it as NO TCH; that didn't work with my themers! (Although I think it would make more sense than NOT CH)
    Speaking of themers, I think Picard might have some Yoga photos of THREE ON A MAT.😀

    BITS beat out Tads; ASCII changed to PENAL (oh it's not computer code); Ciao changed to TATA; Sr's changed to RET.
    The CHESS musical was unknown, and Googling it changed Areas to SITES. That opened up the south central area.
    I was convinced the Vatican would be using the Latin Deo, but GIANTS forced the Italian DIO.
    Since it is Friday, I was expecting "dressed down" to refer to casual clothes.

    Wishing you all a great day.

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  29. Misty - Re: NEU. At first blush I felt it was a bit stilted, except if 'fresh' meant 'new'; fresh coat of paint, new coat of paint.
    A fresh vegetable is 'frisch'.
    My dictionary says that 'fresh' in the sense of a fresh kid giving sass; the word would be 'frech'. (I heard that at home sometimes.)
    In the sense of being 'fresh' to a lady, the word would be " unverschämt".

    ReplyDelete
  30. In case anyone is wondering about Lemonade's reference to the Montreal Canadians, they wear CH on the shirt (Hockey calls it a sweater).

    CH stands for Club de Hockey. Now to the SW, Punch Imlach of the Toronto club once said "If we don't stop all this brawling we're going to have sold out Arenas every night".

    WC

    Oh yeah, on my baseball quiz: The 1934 Cardinals were "The Gashouse Gang".

    WC

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  31. I finished more of this JW puzzle on my own than I usually do so it must have been an easy one from him. Thank you, Jeff, for the mental workout. Thank you, Lemonade, for filling in my unknowns.

    Knew NASH Rambler immediately and started singing the song in my head. Fun!

    I like my sausage, peppers and onions with a bit of white wine served over rice. I'm going to have to make that soon.

    It's good to be allowed back into the shelter. I learned years ago that I love working with shy/timid/under-socialized dogs. We currently have 3 from a hoarding situation that I'm working with. On Wednesday, all 3 of them took food from my hand! Two of the three will allow me to pet them. Progress!

    Have a wonderful rest of your day!

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  32. Whoot! Nailed a Friday JW! I feel so smart //y'all gottsta stop sayin' it was easy :-)

    Thanks JW. The theme really helped me get some "but I can't get nothing to perp" areas in the NCentral and SW.

    Fun Expo Lem! I've seen that video before and that got me to NASH. (I can only imagine it was at The Corner I'd have come 'cross it).
    //OK, I did some research and found that 31 AUG 18 HG mentioned the Beep Beep song and Picard link'd it.

    WOs: BY in BY MEMO was ink'd before I counted letters. A in Areas was ink'd b/f checking (that's going to be EVERY, no? then Area won't work)
    ESPs: ELLERY, SERT, ORA [hey, that's CSO to MIL!].
    Don't y'all think I was that smart though, many fills were only recognized as "crossword words" w/ >70% perpage.


    That SW was a bugger... ETTU got me to LATE PASS where I could go w/ CHESS based on name of song
    [for real? A Musical about Chess? -- just asked and Youngest (a musical fan) and she knows it].
    That broke things just enough.

    Fav: MOTHRA. Made me think of MST3K [Gamera - sure it's the wrong Universe but I've only seen Japanese Monster movies via MST3K and this link is digestible]

    Cipher Code was right out.

    Mistook the theme at 1st as NO TCH [Hi NaomiZ & C, Eh!!]: 'Wait, no, there's the T in MATch and CATch. And I think it's just PINch. Definitely just PUNch. OK, NOT CH.'

    Great news YR!

    Oc4 - I use a package of MILD and one of Medium [once, I got hot (which I like) and that was fun to watch - and more for me :-)]. I like to make a thicker sauce for the 1st go-round and serve sausage & peppers in hoagie rolls. Melted provolone on top? OMG!
    If the S&Ps makes it to a third dish (there's never sausage left), cream is added to the tomato base.
    //Wait? Bacon?

    LOL! RAY-O. Early quarantine project was purging EVERY lid I couldn't find a bowl for (and vise versa).
    Betsy? I was thinking Murgatroyd.

    Y'all have a great Friday.

    Cheers, -T

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  33. Good afternoon. I caught the missing CH on the 'THREE ON A MAT'. I was stumped for 1A with the MELD Italian sausage until I realized it was INURES instead of ENURES. I haven't used Microsoft OUTLOOK since I quit work; never liked it as an email program.

    One unknown today-CHESS the musical; okay another "Endgame-the song". Lemonade- I just listened to it for the first and LAST time. A fast fill for a Wechsler puzzle.

    Only knew SERT and ORA from previous crosswords.
    Non Sequitur is no longer shown in the local paper. I can't imaging why.
    Women are 'flirts'; men are the OGLERS. The deeper the flirt's cleavage, the more OGLERS she attracts.

    NASH- a truly horrible car. Back in 1972-73 I had hired a college student for part-time work and she had a NASH Metropolitan, a total P.O.S. two-seater. I also hired her sister during a college break and she also had one. I found out that their dad had EIGHT of them in various states of disrepair and used parts from them to keep the two girls' card running.

    memphisbelle- we have Tupperware that must be at least 50 years old. But DW uses all the used containers that everything comes in to store leftovers. We have so many that she numbers the lids and containers to find a match. I wish she would rid of most of them.

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    Replies
    1. Anon T @ 2:15. If I did what you did I have the eerie feeling I'd have no Tupperware matches. After throwing a fit, while DW rolls her eyes, I resort to an easily recognized used Cool Whip container!!!

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  34. A surprisingly EZ (but still entertaining) Wechsler for today's pzl.
    I only had to look up the names of NFL teams to be reminded of GIANTS.
    Everything else fell in line for a happy Ta ~DA!

    Friends,
    I thought it couldn't get any harder to avoid talking politics.
    Wrong.
    It is now unbearably harder.
    ~ OMK

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  35. Anon-T: I like a S&P sub also. My favorite Italian restaurant also makes a sub called the Brooklyn Bomber which is Sausage and Peppers and Meatballs smothered in sauce and cheese on a good Italian roll.

    The bacon gives it a little different flavor and a little crunch.

    Pat: I'll have to try it your way with rice instead of pasta or on a sub/hoagie roll.

    Boy I'm getting hungry.

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  36. So many fun comments, and a very upbeat crowd today. Thank you all.

    Speaking of "so" did you any of you get the link at 38D?

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  37. Misty, thanks for the thought, but I am not that talented. That is a verse from the old, old Nash Rambler song.
    Misty and Lucina, thanks for the kind thoughts about my sister. We are afraid she will be a very unhappy camper when she finds she cannot come back home. So sad.
    We also say sweet instead of mild Italian sausage.
    I remember how MAZY was panned here as being made up by a constructor just to fill the puzzle. I have run across it several times since then in reading, the latest just last night, they got lost in the mazy streets of London. So many words panned as constructor's conveniences are actually legit. Many of them are use a good bit in current news articles.
    I have found countless citations for BECLOUD in novels. Another common usage is, "Alcohol beclouds your judgement."

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  38. Puzzling Thoughts:

    Unlike others, I had several places where I got into a glit (ch) ...

    The “north central midwest” was my hang up; TADS/BITS; MORSE/PENAL; BISON/BUTTE. I ended up looking up PENTEL which gave me the help I needed. I solved the “east coast” first, and got NOTCH before any of the play-on-words were solved. I thought it was NO “TCH”, but IS THERE A CAT changed that idea ...

    As I wondered if I could create some sort of poem about this theme, Limerick Larry reminded me of one I created a year ago, but he thinks it never made the blog. And when I tried to re-write it, and remove the “CH”, it made no sense. So just enjoy!

    Today, Ray - O - Sunshine BEAT ME TO THE PUN ...

    Opera divo, turned closer*, made switch.
    Throwing baseballs was clearly his itch.
    Just like singing, he found,
    Struggling up on the mound,
    It’s a bitch when you can’t find your pitch.

    *for you non baseball fans, “closer” is the name of the pitcher who enters the game in the late innings to preserve a win

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  39. Ray-O: I have no real Tupperware save a GIANT-ass bowl Mom gave me that I use for pasta or chicpea salads and keeping pizzelles fresh at Christmas [holds about 75!]. Youngest accidentally melted the lid on the still-hot stove 5 months ago. :-(

    The rest of my "tupperware" is Chinese takeout or H.E.B. buckets. Somehow, they keep changing the spec by a millimeter or two and nuttin' fits.

    Also, there's a deep drawer under my microwave & oven built-in that contains the portal to Land of the Once-Fit LIDS.

    Oc4 - I toast the rolls bottom side up so the center remains soft and sops the oils/sauce while the outside has a crunch like a baguette.

    C. Moe! I wanted iots @5a but that's not Latin enough :-)

    Cheers, -T

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  40. I love Jeff's work and this puzzle is no exception, though I finished it more quickly than I expected to.
    Nope, it wasn't ASCII code (hi CanadianEh!)
    Nope, it wasn't HALL PASS (hi TTP and AnonymousPVX)
    Nope, it wasn't the Latin DEO (hi Ray - O - Sunshine and CanadianEh!)
    Nope, it wasn't TAJIK.
    Nope, it wasn't BY EMAIL (hi desper-otto)
    Nope, it wasn't CIAO (hi again, CanadianEh!)
    I didn't think the fact Jack SPRAT could eat no fat implies he is thin.
    I loved the character SPRATT in Downton Abbey.
    So, Lemonade, how does raising one's auction paddle have anything to do with playing bridge "or so many other choices"?
    OUTLOOK is a very weird program.
    My favorite BUTTE is Bear Butte in South Dakota, not far from Sturgis.
    PLANO is a very weird city. Or maybe it's everywhere in Texas, where I learned that, by law, a buyer of goods who stiffs an out-of-state seller by not paying for them is legally not required to pay and the seller is not allowed to attempt to collect. Texas has some very weird laws.
    I don't get the GIANTS explanation.
    Desper-otto, thanks for explaining why our SS income is taxed. But, but, but isn't that double taxation?
    Does anybody know of any Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that has more than one, or maybe two, good songs in it? Besides Jesus Christ Superstar. (Yes, I know "good song" is totally subjective.)
    TATA, all!

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  41. From Wednesday: I before E. except when it isn't.
    OMK:
    I learned that form of the rule (without the last line). However, it doesn't account for all the exceptions; to say nothing of all the words taken from German (stein, rottweiler, ...) and other foreign languages.

    > Roy

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  42. Hi Y'all! Very amusing, Jeffrey, thanks. Great commentary, Lemonade!

    This was not really easy, but doable for me. Got the theme from IT'll DO IN A PIN which was the first theme phrase to fill. The reveal was anti-climactic. I first parsed it NO TCH then revised it when that proved wrong.

    I was driving a brand new mauve NASH Rambler when that song came out. Think it was a 1958 model. Beep! Beep! Never raced a Cadillac -- not many around where we lived. Dad got a deal on the NASH because no one else liked the color. I also realized years later that he also knew his teenaged daughter (me) liked pink. But curmudgeon that he was he would never have admitted he bought it to please me.

    DNK: PENTEL, CHESS is a musical, SERT, HIGH ART.

    Kathy, glad your sis is going to be adequately cared for. Hope the pacemaker helps her dementia. My brother's pacemaker helped with supplying a better blood flow to the brain. Sad time for your family tho.

    I haven't had a donut in years. Thanks to y'all's observance of donut day, I am now craving donuts (plural). Good thing I'm stuck at home.

    ReplyDelete
  43. From Yesterday:
    It is interesting how many people were grumpy about the puzzle for completely different reasons. I enjoyed the theme, but hated the impossible cluster near the middle. I had U MAD BOY which gave me PARO and LEBYN which were odd, but perfectly possible. PARR and LEBON are utter unknowns.

    I was disappointed that no one responded to my question about LAVA Lamps and "The Prisoner" TV show on Tuesday and had gone back into hibernation.

    Here again is the background on the use of LAVA Lamps and other clever props in "The Prisoner"

    Still curious if anyone else remembers this?

    ReplyDelete
  44. Picard, my browser is outdated and I can't get a lot of the clips from Youtube. I did enjoy your heron & egret the other day and can look at most of your hikes & festivals. Sometimes just forget to comment to you. Sorry. & thanks.

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  45. Jayce, they are called the NY Giants, but they play and practice in NJ.

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  46. Picard, I thought The Prisoner was very clever. I have tried to watch it several times over the years but I just ended up frustrated. I have a Lava Lamp but I didn't remember one in the show.

    Jayce, count me in as another person who doesn't like Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. I'm a fan of the older classics like Oklahoma, The Music Man, etc.

    Our family car in the late 40s was a full-size Nash sedan, a perfectly adequate vehicle.

    OMK, I agree, maintaining political silence is getting harder all the time. The visuals on television are painful.

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  47. I like some of Andrew Lloyd Webber's songs, especially those from EVITA, such as Don't Cry for me, Argentina. In fact, I love that whole movie.

    ReplyDelete

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